Manchester United have already sounded out Zinedine Zidane about the possibility of replacing Jose Mourinho as manager.

That’s the claim from talkSPORT presenter and Times columnist Tony Cascarino, with Mourinho’s United future in the balance after his side were defeated by West Ham to leave them 10th in the Premier League table.

Zidane has been out of management since leaving Real Madrid at the end of last season

United have won only three of their opening seven league games this season and there have been numerous revelations of discontent behind the scenes, including a very public bust-up with £89million midfielder Paul Pogba.

According to Cascarino, the former Chelsea striker and Weekend Sports Breakfast co-host, the players are simply not playing for Mourinho and Zidane could now be poised to take over.

He said: “Looking at a manager who is getting so little out his team, he has to be responsible for how his team are playing. I see a lack of energy and desire in that team at the moment.

“If I’m brutally honest, I think he’ll be gone very soon. I think the talks have already happened and I was led to believe Zidane has already met United from a source that has told me many things over the years that have come true.

“I think that will happen, and I think it should happen now because United are 10th in the league.

“Yes, only seven games have gone, but United have served up tripe in the sort of football we have witnessed!”

Is this the end of the line for Mourinho at Man United?

It’s crisis time for the former perennial winners of silverware after the 3-1 reverse at West Ham, and Cascarino went into a six-minute rant about the club on Sunday’s Weekend Sports Breakfast show.

As well as pointing the finger at Mourinho, he also criticised the make up of United’s squad, saying they are nothing more than a bunch of brutes rather than the technically gifted talents of years gone by.

Cascarino said: “I was never good enough to play for Man United by a country mile, there was a certain standard at that football club. But I could be in that team now!

“I mean that because I’m six foot three and I’m a big lad who can get on the end of crosses. That’s what [Marouane] Fellaini is to me.”